Time for another installment of this Wednesday/Sunday night series!
Picking up from last time –
First up was my CT Urogram. I drank the little cup of water. Then I waited the allotted amount of time.
After that, I got changed into a hospital gown. An IV was inserted so that some dye could be injected into me during the test.
Then, I was taken into one of those rooms with the big circular scanner. (It sort of looks like a big a donut where you lay down and a technician mechanically slides you into the center.) The guy who led me in was incredibly sweet. I usually make small talk with the medical professionals. He’d switched to a more interactive job, and was telling me how he absolutely loves helping people and wanted a job where he could have face time with the patients, instead of helping from afar.
He offered me a blanket. He worked to make sure I felt completely comfortable and calm. Of course I wasn’t afraid at all. At this point, with all the time I’ve spent in the hospital, scanners are nothing! But if I’d been afraid, I probably would’ve wanted the calming presence of this nice man (who seemed to be excellent at his job – thumbs up!).
The Urogram consisted basically of a lot of holding my breath, and being slid in and out of the scanner. The tech in the other room would check in with me between each round to see if I was okay.
Yeah, I’m totally good.
The test went quicker than I expected. On the sheet it says it will take an hour. The hour counts the water drinking, and waiting, and changing, and getting the IV and all of that.
For some reason, knowing it was going to take an hour, I assumed I’d be in that scanner forever. But I think it was probably only 20 minutes-ish? It was pretty fast.
Once it was over, there wasn’t really enough time to go to work and come back (and actually get anything real accomplished at work). So, I just hung out at UCLA.
A blog reader had written me recently saying he was going to be in town and he wondered if he could meet me for coffee.
It was a crazy week between work, and the Emmys (the day after this 2nd Big Kidney Day), and of course this kidney stuff. But I really hate ever saying I’m too busy for people, unless there truly is not some way to make time for them (which isn’t often the case… though once in a while I suppose it can be).
Anyway, I told him that it was a busy week but if he happened to want to have lunch at UCLA Hospital in the time between my tests, I’d be up for it.
He trekked out to Santa Monica(!). We hung out in the cafe area and talked. Hopefully he felt I was present and not too distracted by all my tests. Of course, there wasn’t too much for me to be distracted by, as all I had left was the meeting with the nephrologist. How hard could that be?
And this is where I’ll pick up next time.